


Stuck Together

by KuroXan



Category: South Park
Genre: Currently got the romance, M/M, Maybe it gets Romantic, Might include art later, Mild Gore, Minor Character Death, Others? - Freeform, Peaches are touch, Plot Driven, Pretend this isn't a rewrite of my shitter older fic, Supernatural Elements, There's a lot of handholding, Young Love, intimate scene in a bathroom, much gay, no homo but it really is, supernatural mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:41:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28374822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KuroXan/pseuds/KuroXan
Summary: Life is peaceful for Kenny McCormick, after Cartman has been locked up for 8 years. At least until one school field trip leads him to being stuck with a boy named Craig and a slew of other strange and horrifying events.Kenny wants to survive this but is that even possible?
Relationships: Kenny McCormick/Craig Tucker
Comments: 3
Kudos: 14





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This rewrite is possible thanks to my dear editor [OmissionSoul](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OmissionSoul)
> 
> Send her love unu.

Life is pretty boring nowadays for a boy named Kenny McCormick. By some kind of miracle, Cartman was arrested, no more wacky adventures followed after that. Kyle celebrated this miraculous event by throwing a party, but Kenny couldn’t bring himself to be as overjoyed. At the time he thought that Cartman leaving would not lead to much difference, but it turned out that it was rather life changing. 

South Park became what it was always meant to be, another boring hick mountain town that nobody would bat an eye at. It came with the added bonus that he basically stopped dying after that day. He didn’t know if it was because Cartman was no longer bringing world ending hijinks into the town anymore or the possibility that the curse was gone. Either way, he couldn’t bring himself to care, life was good. Mind numbingly boring, but it was better than walking down the street and getting shot randomly. 

**...**

Kenny glances down to the bag he has packed, it has the bare minimum of what he’s going to need for the school trip he’s going on, being excited for it. Free food, a nice bed, who could refuse that? Happy with his selection, he closes his bag up. He looks at his bed and sees his gun laying there. He pauses for a moment, before grabbing it and shoving it into his bag. He wasn’t sure if he’d need it or not, but thought to bring it along just in case. On his way out, he makes sure to give Karen a kiss on the cheek and she wishes him a safe trip before he goes.

He checks if he has everything in his bag one more time when he’s outside. His gun glints in the sunlight and catches his eye. A strange creeping feeling climbs up his arms while looking at it, but he gets a sense of relief when he grabs it and shoves it into his inner jacket pocket. He zips his bag back up, after seeing he has everything he needs and starts heading to the meeting point.

It’s early out as Kenny walks to school, and warm enough now that no snow covers the ground anymore. When he arrives at school, he notices that everyone has already begun heading onto the school bus and taking their seats. As he gets on, he spots Kyle and Stan already in their seats. Stan with his typical goth getup, now that he was embracing the look and lifestyle, but thankfully dropped the name ‘Raven’ back in 9th grade. While Kyle is getting his life together now that Cartman wasn’t there to drag him down. After his brief glance at them, he walks over and takes the seat behind them. They don’t even notice him as he does, being much too invested in whatever ‘Super Best Friend’ conversation they’re having. It’s painfully awkward as he sits there, silently, third wheeling their intense platonic relationship. Though he pays it no mind. 

Kenny takes notice of Craig and his group coming on, their gang never changing over the years and still consisting of the same members. Craig, Clyde, Jimmy, Tweek and Token. Although, it was certainly strange to see Token come on, as he rarely stepped foot onto these dingy old, bug infested, school buses unless he had no other option. 

Craig sits across from him, alone, as the others sit in pairs ahead of him. Kenny sneaks a peek at him. He hadn’t changed much over the years, still wearing a blue chullo, some strands of hair peeking out from under it, calm dark blue eyes, that were currently searching for something in his bag and a blue hoodie. 

Kenny sometimes observed him from a distance when he was bored. And noticed that even though Craig is still the leader, he seemed to have distanced himself from the rest of the group. Always sitting separate, ever so slightly from them, he didn’t talk much amongst the group anymore, yet his friends stayed ever so loyal to him.

Craig pulls out a chunky set of headphones from his bag and puts them on. His usual bored look on his face as he keeps his head down. 

Kenny observes him little while longer, as the noisy teenage rambling fades into the background like a gentle hum. He thinks that Craig is pretty happy with their more boring lives they’ve had for years now. Because he sure was. 

At some point Craig notices him watching, and something about his blue eyes unsettles him. The longer they linger, the more it grinds at his insides. And a strange sick thickness makes its way down his throat, like that of tar or something. However, he can’t bring himself to look away and instead Craig is the one who casts his sights away, and stares out the bus window.

**...**

Kenny doesn’t remember when he falls asleep, but when he comes to, he feels something warm against his cheek that is too soft to be a window. He opens his eyes, to many more staring back at him. A crowd is gathered around him and he doesn’t understand what’s going on until he looks to the side, finding Craig asleep next to him. He tries to jerk his body away, but the instant he does metal rattles and there’s a sharp tug causing him to stop. When he glances down, he finds his wrist cuffed to Craig’s and the bus erupting into laughter.

Craig wakes up from the sudden noise and tries to rub at his tired eyes but is halted by a cold metallic tug. He trails his eyes down his arm until he also spots the cuffs. He lets out a simple, “Oh.” Before closing his eyes again and going back to sleep. Which Kenny gives a bewildered look at, for Craig's lack of reaction and ability to just fall back asleep after that.

Craig may have given no fucks, but Kenny surely did and decided to stay awake and protect them, not wanting someone to try drawing dicks on his face if he fell asleep again. 

Tweek peeks his head over the seat in front of Kenny's. His voice comes out low and jittery. “Fuck dude, I tried my best to stop them but they wouldn’t listen!” He takes a moment to twitch his shoulder before going on. “They threw the keys out of the window before me and Token could stop them.”

Kenny shugs, “It’s whatever, not like we can do anything about it now.” He was happy to at least be cuffed to Craig and not some other idiot on the bus. From what he could tell, Craig seemed like a pretty chill guy.

After miles of fields and trees go by, Kenny eventually gets his first glimpse of the town they’re going to be staying in. It’s a small town that doesn’t have many houses in it, bathed in orange from the late afternoon sun, and clearly dependent on the tourism from students stuck on field trips with no choice. 

Their teachers thought that teens should connect with nature more, like South Park wasn’t in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by nature already. Why did they even have to travel so far just for some dumb nature walks?

The bus parks outside the only hostel in the town. Tweek turns from his seat in front of them and pokes Craig awake, who again wakes up to realize he’s chained to someone else and shrugs at it. There’s an adjustment period as the two slide out of their seats and a lot of ‘sorry’s and ‘move it’s. The teachers give them judgemental looks, roll their eyes and get their names written down on the room assignment sheet. It’s late and none of the teachers can bring themselves to care right now.

The pair are unsurprisingly sharing a room. To Kenny’s relief, they aren’t going to be in a room of four, that would only make their eventual bathroom situation even stranger. Tweek and Token were nice enough to help them carry their bags for them, Tweek constantly apologizing to Kenny as if he were the one who cuffed them and threw the keys out himself, to which Kenny at some point has tell him to stop and that it’s alright and that he doesn’t need to apologize after the fifth time. When he glanced at Craig, he found Craig was quite happy to have someone else carry his bag for him. 

Once the two are left alone, there’s a heavy silence that follows. Craig was never much of a talker, neither was Kenny at times, which made things even more awkward between them because of it. Craig takes the lead and tugs them to the bed, quickly taking out his phone and playing some mobile game.

Kenny lets Craig tug his arm around as he plays his game but quickly grows bored. He wants to use his phone also, but it’s safely tucked in his bag, which is on the other side of the bed. They were already in a weird position where Craig is sitting up and Kenny is lying flat on his back with his arm dangling up. But he tries to slowly tug his arm away, which earns an annoyed growl from Craig and he gives up on his attempt.

“Wanna talk?” he tries asking.

Craig lets out an annoyed sigh, his eyes not leaving the game as he settles for playing it on one hand, “Not particularly.” he finally replies.

The room settles back into silence. Kenny grows so bored by it, he starts counting the stains on the walls, which ends up being five. The walls are a yellow-brown off white tint, which shows its age, but it’s not nearly as bad as the walls he had back home. His stare drifts to the small blank TV with no remote in sight. Next he observes the flies buzzing around the bright fluorescent lights above. His ears starting to buzz at the lack of sound, with only the faint tapping of Craig’s fingers coming from his phone screen. And he gives up staying silent. 

“So, How’s Trish?”

“Didn’t we agree to not talking?” Craig asks, he turns off his screen and looks down at him.

“Yeah, but that was then and now I’m bored out of my mind!” Kenny pauses and grins at the unamused Craig. “So, Tricia?”

“You’re lucky I’m low on batteries,” Craig shifts so they’re both lying beside each other. “That brat is fine, she’s a bit of a dick sometimes but things have been alright. And Karen?”

Kenny is taken aback, he didn’t actually think Craig would start chatting back. But nonetheless, he is overjoyed to talk about his sister, he’s a proud brother after all. “Oh she’s good. She’s going to after school clubs with Trish. I’m glad they’re getting along.” Kenny replies, and Craig lazily hums in agreement, closing his eyes momentarily. “Are you going to see their play? The one that’s coming up.”

Craig nods, “Trish would bitch to me if I missed it. She is captain of the lighting team or something. She told me Karen was the lead. I can’t remember what the play was about though.”

“That’s cool,” Kenny replies, “uh, hey, I uh…” he pauses, he had been hoping he wouldn’t have to bring this subject up, but knew it was inevitable. “Dude, sorry to ruin this moment and all, but I kinda gotta pee, like, really bad.” He had been holding it in for a while, but now it felt as if his bladder was about to burst.

“Hold it.” Craig says in his regular grainy voice.

“You seriously can’t expect me to hold it until we get back to South Park, can you? That’s unreasonable, inhumane… sadistic. Is this your kink or something?” Kenny asks with an overly dramatic gasp.

Craig’s face reddens at the strange accusation, utterly baffled by how Kenny managed to come up with that conclusion. He tucks his phone into his back pocket and quickly yanks Kenny up by the cuffs and drags him to the bathroom without another word. Kenny is at first caught off guard for a second before happily trailing behind. Craig sits on the tub next to the toilet with his arm back and gives Kenny the room to do what he needs to. “Try and be quick.” is all Kenny is given. 

Kenny notices a light flush spreading across the other’s face as he glances off in the direction of the tub. 

“What’s the matter Craig? Never seen another man’s wiener out while pissing?” 

“I’m not normally handcuffed to them,” Craig replies, then pauses. “Just hurry up.”

Once he’s done, he washes his hands, and recalls the fact that Craig is notorious for not washing his hands after going to the washroom. “Don’t you have to go too?” he asks, suddenly realizing he hasn’t seen Craig go at all. Even if he did go before getting bound together, that was several hours ago.

“I’m fine for now.” Craig sighs before leading them back to the bed. 

They go back to an awkward silence and Kenny starts to think Craig fell asleep after a while, from how quiet he is. He thinks about maybe going to sleep himself, and that maybe it will make this whole ordeal go by faster. The thought being, the sooner he sleeps, the sooner the two can look for a way to get unstuck and go back to their lives of maybe never saying another word to each other again. 

He closes his eyes and feels drained. He hadn’t realized how much this whole situation had affected him until now. And just as he’s about to fall asleep, his heart starts to race and his eyes shoot back open. Something wasn’t right. His blood burns in his veins, like hellish brimstone, and his skin pins and prickles with adrenaline.

There’s a scream.

Kenny looks hastily around the room before he sits up and tries to wake Craig, who lets out a disgruntled sound before rubbing his eyes and sitting up as well. Craig doesn’t even get the chance to say anything though, as Kenny gets up and forces him to follow him to the window. There’s an unnatural red glow beaming in from between the closed curtains, and as the two get closer to it the screaming grows louder, now with others joining in on it. 

Kenny nearly falls over as the building shakes but Craig manages to pull him back before the floor beneath them collapses and half of the room is gone in an instant. With the entire wall gone, they can now see everything outside, and what was once an ordinary night sky, is now a spiralling mass of glowing red clouds. Kenny looks down at the damage in front of them, where they had just narrowly dodged and could have potentially died. The three rooms that had been adjacent to theirs were completely gone, likely now part of the rubble below.    
  
Frozen, like a deer in the headlights, he can’t tear his eyes away from the people screaming on the other side of the gap, all of their wails and anguish flooding him with a deep dread. 

This couldn’t be real. Right?


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's time to start running, and running fast.

“Let’s get out of here.” Craig’s calm voice says, breaking Kenny from whatever trace he’s in.

Craig leads the pair towards the door that is luckily still intact. Craig is about to open the door but a loud growling from behind stops him. Kenny looks back through the opening to see a large black beast with multiple eyes on it’s wolf-like face. It’s as tall as the building, standing high above them, covered in inky black fur.

The creature scans the building, with slitted eyes, before they stop on them. Kenny’s skin prickles at the sight as it draws itself back a step. Craig slams the door open and rushes them through it.

Kenny’s ears ring as the beast crashes into the building. Concrete crashes, steel beams snap . He struggles and falls, but manages to push himself up, his vision spinning and ears ring from hitting it against the ground. There’s some debris on his legs, and a few possible bruises, but nothing left broken. A pull at his wrist reminds him to check on his partner.

Craig, luckily, seems to be in no pain but is in shock, his eyes wide. Kenny follows his gaze to where their room was to find the entire floor of rooms destroyed, giving them a clear view of the hellish beast now staring down at them. In the same breath, the two force themselves up and book it towards the staircase.

Kenny’s ears ring louder as the beast throws itself against the building, destroying the area they had just escaped. He manages to keep up with Craig, despite the building rocking from the crash. The two finally reach the end of the hall, panting, and speed down the steps without stopping for a breath.

They scan the area once they reach the bottom, and find themselves now in the food hall. The hall is quiet, aside from creaking coming from the outside. They both spot a large set of doors on the other side of the hall and quickly make their way towards them. Kenny’s skin prickles again and he pulls Craig to a stop, just as a set of black claws come crashing down in front of them, cutting them off from the main exit. They slowly step back, their breathing shallow, as they look for another way out.

But there are no other doors, it was only the main exit, or the door to the main building and none of them were a good option.

“We have to go through the windows at the back of the room.” Craig whispers.

A tug at Kenny’s wrist gets him moving. The beast continues to slash into the room, trying to find them. Debris crashes down everywhere and dust fills the air, making it hard to see and the air thick to breath. Once the two reach the back wall, Kenny blindly reaches for the handle. He finds it and pulls, only to find it locked. Before he can turn around, a fire extinguisher smashes through the glass window, spreading shards everywhere, but Kenny manages to cover his face in time. 

“Sorry” Craig murmurs.

Craig practically forces Kenny to go first before carefully slipping out himself. Kenny glaces back once outside, to see the beast still destroying the building, being completely focused on it. They keep running and running towards the forest behind the building. Bile builds in Kenny’s throat as he hears distant screaming and the sound scratches at his chest. His attention is pulled away from it when Craig’s phone starts ringing and Craig struggles to get it out while running. He answers his phone and his expression quickly turns sour.

“It’s for you.” He hands Kenny his phone. Kenny wonders if Craig was hoping it was someone else.

Kenny carefully takes it from him, trying his best not to drop it as they run. He brings it up to his ear and immediately hears Kyle’s deep panicked voice on the other end.

“Kenny —— Where the hell are you?” It’s hard to make out Kyle’s voice though some sort of strange buzzing interference.

“We just barely made it out of the hostel. Where are you guys? Are you alright?” Kenny says as quickly as he can, between pants. There’s no telling if Kyle can even hear him, as the buzzing only grows louder.

“We’re —— got out ——— outside —— Clyde and those guys ——— ” Kenny picks up as much as he can and relays the message to Craig, who keeps leading the way. 

“What does he mean outside? That could be anywhere.” Craig pants out. They’ve been running for almost ten straight minutes now and it is starting to wear on them both. 

The call becomes an inaudible mess and Kenny plays it out over and over in his head. Trying to make sense of what Kyle told him, but unable to. 

“I don’t know.” He eventually hangs up.

Figuring he should at least save Craig’s battery in case they ever need it. They finally reach the outskirts of the town, which is just a thick untamed forest, and stop to take a breather behind some trees.

Their legs collapse under them, their wrists sore from the friction. Kenny finally has a moment to stop and think. Life had finally seemed so peaceful again, yet this beast appeared in the middle of nowhere just to make his life suck again. He’s amazed he is even still alive. 

Something warm drips down his face. His eyes are damp. A sudden overwhelming sense fills him, the reminder of death. And his mind weighs heavy.

They sit in silence together. And Kenny wonders if Craig has even noticed he started crying, as Craig was keeping his head down, or would glance back towards the center of those red clouds. Craig eventually does look at him, but Kenny’s face is dry now, the only possible traces of tears being his still red eyes. Craig gives Kenny a warm pat on the shoulder before he suggests they keep moving. The two hastily make their way through the thick undergrowth, and away from the town the beast.

They walk for a while until they spot the starry night sky in the distance. They both let out a sigh of relief at the sight. While they make their way towards the clear sky, they notice strange red lights floating around. They form a sort of wall as they swirl around like fireflies.

Kenny attempts to step through the strange lights but his hand burns when it reaches the space between them. He withdraws his hand and gets a whiff of burnt flesh. He takes a good look at it, the burn is intense but doesn’t go too deep. But definitely is going to leave a nasty mark.

Craig takes a look too, a feeling of dread fills Kenny’s mind, “I guess we need to change our plan,” he laughs, despite the pit in his stomach forming. 

“I guess we do.” Craig takes Kenny’s hand and grimaces. He stops to think for a bit while Kenny watches. Craig’s hands are surprisingly soft he thinks to himself. After Craig has some time to think, he takes off his hoodie and rips a strip off the bottom of his black shirt. Kenny hisses in pain as the other wraps it tightly.

“At least you won’t get an infection,” Craig says, examining his work before letting go of Kenny’s hand.

“I don’t think it works like that,” Kenny chuckles.

“Works in the movies, doesn’t it?” Craig jokes back.

Kenny looks up from his hand and sees Craig looking back with purple eyes. He’s taken aback until he realises that Craig’s eyes were reflecting the red lights ahead of them. Kenny thinks about making a stupid comment about but it, and as he thinks of something to say, the two notice the strange wall of light start to slowly move inwards. They take a few steps back. As the wall moves over plants, they burn to ash, like what would have probably happened to Kenny’s hand if he hadn’t pulled it out quick enough.

“I have a feeling that the others were on the other side by the time the wall formed,” Kenny guesses.

“They were probably off doing some dumb shit in the woods before that thing appeared,” Craig adds.

The two watch the wall move slowly. 

“Let’s get out of here before we get fried too,” Kenny says and ushers Craig back towards the town.

The two eventually make their way back. They reach the outskirts of the town, with no beast in sight, thankfully. The air is still and it’s silent. Quite a few buildings are destroyed and there isn’t a soul in sight. Besides the unnatural red glow of the sky, it was as if they were in a ghost town.

The pair make their way towards one of the buildings, not wanting to be caught out in the open. Every step they take crunches loudly in the silence. They keep a constant eye out as they traverse the space between the forest and buildings. Kenny spots some red stains against the debris of one of the destroyed buildings, which leads his eyes toward blood stains littering the ground, but no bodies in sight.

It’s been a long time since he’s seen death.

The pair reach one of the small cottage homes. Kenny silently takes the lead, figuring if something comes out, it’s better that he died than Craig. Even though he wasn’t sure he still had the curse, he was willing to take the gamble.

They creep up to the front door and find it wide open, shoes jumbled in every which way leading outside of the cottage, so Kenny assumes that it was from the owners running for their lives.

Kenny leads them both in, they find everything mostly untouched. It really seemed like everyone upped and left in such a rush. They find themselves in the kitchen after a bit of searching. 

“You hungry?” Kenny asks.

“Definitely, I haven’t eaten anything since this morning.” 

“I don’t really feel like cooking, want some doritos?” Kenny asks as he searches through some drawers, dragging Craig along.

“I mean, if we’re going to steal anyways. Might as well steal something worthwhile.” Craig adds.

Kenny grabs a handful of bags and hands a few to Craig. He can’t help but look as he spots an open window facing the direction of where the hostel is. Shivering at the thought of it. He gets jerked back by the wrist, and glances over to see Craig snatching a soda from the fridge, noticing that it has no power. 

The two move to the master bedroom and Craig throws himself onto the bed the moment he lays eyes on it, forcing Kenny down along with him. He sighs in relief and finally relaxes after a stressful night. Kenny looks towards the window, with the glowing sky, it’s hard to tell how much time has even passed or even what time of day it is because of it.

He looks out towards the town, still no sign of the beast.

Kenny listens to Craig crunching on some chips. It brought back memories, memories of the school cafeteria. He spent a lot of time just observing people, it was a way he passed time as he sat silently with Stan and Kyle. He remembers a time he was watching Craig a few months back. He was with his usual group of friends, he was sitting there eating with them. As his friends talked away, he remembers Craig sitting there, blending into the background. He spent the entire time eating quietly, never saying a word. Now that Kenny thinks about it, Craig’s been like this for around the last year. Before that, Craig used to be quite the talker, always getting into the latest rumours with Clyde. Kenny would hear them when passing them in the halls.

“Hey Craig, why are you so quiet nowadays?”

“Just don’t feel like talking. That’s all.” Craig replies after a minute of thinking. Craig opens his eyes and looks up at Kenny. His eyes seeming purple in this red lit room. For some reason it makes Kenny’s arms heat up, that certainly wasn’t a normal reaction to have. And his cheeks feel hot. 

‘Then again, nothing about this situation is normal,’ Kenny thinks to himself.

Kenny sits on the bed beside Craig, giving their raw rubbed wrists a break. 

“I know you aren’t an emo. As much as you might think you are,” Kenny says, and Craig stops to think. He thinks for a long while but in the end doesn’t say anything . So Kenny presses on. “Don’t you get lonely?”

“I guess I get a bit lonely. They’re good friends and all… I don’t know, I’ve just felt, off,” Craig’s voice didn’t carry as much as it’s usual weight.

“Off?” Kenny presses.

“I don’t really feel like talking about this. I wouldn’t even know how to talk about it. Not to mention, I barely even know you.”

“Honestly Craig. I'm quite offended, not only did we share an almost life ending event together. We shared a very intimate moment in the bathroom earlier.”

“... I’m going to pretend you didn’t just say that,” Craig says before rolling over and getting comfortable.

“Guess that puts me on guard duty.”

“I’m trusting you with my life, so don’t fuck it up,” Craig murmurs sleepily, and Kenny just chuckles.

“I’ll make sure nothing happens while you have your beauty sleep. Handsome boys like you need your rest,” Kenny jokes.

“Yeah yeah, let me sleep and get pretty then,” Craig snorts before settling. Kenny pulls a chair closer so he can be by the window without giving both himself and Craig even more friction burns on their wrists.

Kenny peers out of the window again. He wonders how long this peace will last. There’s still no sign of that strange beast and the walls seem to have stopped moving in the distance. He turns back to Craig, but he’s asleep now. Still holding the chip bag in his hand, so Kenny moves it away and puts it on the table.

Kenny can no longer handle the itching he's had since they entered the cottage. His arms burn, not too different from having his arms on fire. He peels down one of his parka sleeves, expecting some sort of rash but instead of seeing red, he sees black. Black markings running from above his elbow to his wrists. They certainly weren’t there this morning. And he doesn’t have any tattoos, thinking it would just be asking for death, to have it removed by dying. Death has a sick sense of humour.

He traces the burning black marks with his finger. They briefly turn red under his touch. He buries his face in his hands and he groans. He spent all these years not thinking about his curse and now things decide to appear and bring his life back into chaos. Craig’s soft breathing draws his attention and he looks down at the sleeping boy. He wished he didn’t drag Craig into this, but now they’re stuck together.


End file.
